Selwyn George (Bill) Lane E.D. R.L. (1922–2000) was an Australian amateur ornithologist who worked for the Sydney County Council for most of life until he retired in 1983. He joined the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) in 1947, was a State Representative for New South Wales on that body from 1964 until 1967, and a Vice-President from 1968 to 1969. He was elected a Fellow of the RAOU in 1983. He was a founding member and President of the Australian Bird Study Association.
Wingspan was the quarterly membership magazine of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU). It was first issued in 1991, replacing the RAOU Newsletter. When Birds Australia and Bird Observation and Conservation Australia merged in 2012 to form BirdLife Australia, Wingspan's run ended, and was replaced with Australian Birdlife magazine.
Archibald James Campbell was an Australian civil servant in the Victorian government Customs Service. However, his international reputation rests on his expertise as an amateur ornithologist and naturalist.
Robert Hall was a founding member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) in 1901, and served as its President 1912-1913.
Bird Observation & Conservation Australia was a club established on 12 April 1905 by members of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) in Melbourne, Victoria, as the Bird Observers Club. Although inactive for many years, in 1927 it was revived and subsequently active until the end of 2011 when it merged with Birds Australia to form BirdLife Australia. It published a quarterly journal, Australian Field Ornithology, and a quarterly newsletter, the Bird Observer. It had a cooperative relationship with the Land for Wildlife program, a voluntary conservation scheme for private land in Victoria, which was instigated by two prominent club members, Ellen McCulloch and Reg Johnson, established in 1981, and coordinated by the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment.
Stephen Marchant, AM (1912–2003) was born in Shropshire, studied geology at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and worked in the oil exploration business in many countries, using the opportunities arising from his postings to study birdlife around the world. He wrote classic papers on the birds of the Red Sea, Nigeria, the Gold Coast, Indonesia, Borneo, Ecuador and Iraq. In 1963 he migrated to Australia where he joined the Bureau of Mineral Resources in Canberra.
Alexander Hugh Chisholm (1890-1977) also known as Alec Chisholm, was a noted Australian journalist, newspaper editor, author and amateur ornithologist. He was a member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), President of the RAOU 1939-1940, and Editor of its journal the Emu 1926-1928. He was elected a Fellow of the RAOU in 1941. He was the first recipient of the Australian Natural History Medallion in 1940 for his work in ornithology and popularising natural history. Chisholm was a prolific writer of articles and books.
Clive Dudley Thomas Minton, AM is a British and Australian metallurgist, administrator, management consultant and amateur ornithologist. His interest in birds began in childhood. Born in England, he attended Oundle School and went on to complete a PhD degree in Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge. Although involved in studies of various species of birds, his main focus became the migratory waders. He became the founding chairman of the Wash Wader Ringing Group and was associated with the development of cannon-netting, especially as a means of catching large numbers of waders for banding and demographic studies.
Arnold Robert McGill OAM (1905–1988) was a Sydney-based Australian businessman and amateur ornithologist. He was President of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) 1958-1959, and elected a Fellow of the RAOU in 1965. He was Assistant Editor of the RAOU journal, the Emu 1948-1969 and compiled indexes to it until his death. He coauthored, with Keith Hindwood, The Birds of Sydney (1958). He was a recipient of the Medal of the Order of Australia.
Angus Hargreaves Robinson was the owner of a grazing property, 'Yanjettee', at Coolup, Western Australia, as well as being an amateur ornithologist. He made important studies of the birds on his property, including Australian magpies and Magpie-larks. He was a member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), and made a Fellow of the RAOU in 1970.
Wilson Roy Wheeler (1905-1988) was an Australian postman and professional ornithologist. He was an active bird bander and was convener of the Altona Survey Group, later part of the Victorian Ornithological Research Group. In 1965 he was awarded the Australian Natural History Medallion. He was a member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), President 1964-1965, and made a Fellow of the RAOU in 1971.
Herbert Thomas Condon was an Australian museum curator and ornithologist. He was born in Melbourne and attended the University of Adelaide. In 1929, Condon joined the scientific staff of the South Australian Museum; he was promoted to Assistant in Zoology in 1935, and became Curator of Birds and Reptiles in 1938. He kept this position for the decades through to 1976, broken only by a period of war service with the RAAF.
Harold James Frith AO was an Australian administrator and ornithologist. He was born at Kyogle, New South Wales and studied Agricultural Science at Sydney University. He first joined the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry but later transferred to the Division of Wildlife and carried out extensive research on malleefowl, waterfowl, especially magpie geese, and pigeons. He eventually became Chief of the Division and was instrumental in proposals that led to the establishment of Kakadu National Park.
Dr Oliver Michael Griffiths Newman is an Australian metallurgist, administrator and amateur ornithologist who has worked for many years with Pasminco EZ Ltd in Tasmania and Newcastle, New South Wales. In Tasmania he was involved with studies on waders, especially the breeding biology of pied oystercatchers. He became a member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) in 1968. He was regional organizer for the RAOU's Atlas of Australian Birds project 1977-1981. He served on the RAOU Council 1982-1988, and again from 1999, including chairing the Research Committee. He was elected a Fellow of the RAOU in 2003.
The South Australian Ornithological Association (SAOA), also known as Birds SA, is an Australian birding organisation based in Adelaide, South Australia. The SAOA publishes a journal, the South Australian Ornithologist as well as the Birds SA Newsletter "the Birder". It holds regular monthly meetings and conducts field trips for members. Its is also involved in many conservation projects throughout South Australia to help protect local bird species and their habitats.
Australasian Ornithological Conferences are biennial meetings of ornithologists that focus on the Australasian region and Antarctica. Preceded by the short-lived series of two Southern Hemisphere Ornithological Congresses, they were initiated by the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), also known as Birds Australia, with the inaugural meeting held at Bathurst, New South Wales in 2001. They have subsequently been jointly sponsored by the BirdLife Australia and the Ornithological Society of New Zealand (OSNZ).
Michael Stanley Reid Sharland (1899–1987) was an Australian journalist, photographer, author and amateur ornithologist. He was born, and spent most of his life, in Tasmania, though he also lived and worked in Sydney, Melbourne and London.
The Queensland Ornithological Society Inc (QOSI), also known as Birds Queensland, was founded on 15 October 1969 when the Queensland branch of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) became defunct following drastic reform within the RAOU in the late 1960s. The founding President was J.D. Macdonald. It publishes a quarterly journal, Sunbird, as well as a monthly newsletter, Queensland Bird Notes. Its aims are “to promote the scientific study and conservation of birds by all means possible, with particular reference to the birds of Queensland”. For its members it holds monthly meetings in Brisbane as well as regular field excursions and campouts. The logo of Birds Queensland is the yellow-bellied sunbird, a species whose Australian range lies entirely within Queensland.
The NSW Field Ornithologists Club, also known as Birding NSW, was founded on 21 July 1970 when activities associated with the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) in New South Wales ceased following drastic reform within the RAOU in the late 1960s which abolished all its branches. Birding NSW publishes a bi-monthly newsletter and holds regular meetings in Sydney and Tuggerah as well as regular field excursions and campouts. The logo of Birding NSW is the azure kingfisher.
